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"The role of information activities in modern society."

Theoretical information

Knowing the world around us, each of us forms his own idea of ​​it. Every day we learn something new - we receive information. The term "information" translated from Latin means "explanation, presentation, set of information." Information has properties, it can be useful, understandable, relevant, complete, reliable. A person perceives information with the help of the senses, they convey all this information to the consciousness of a person, his senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Human activities associated with the processes of receiving, transforming, accumulating and transmitting information are called information activities... For thousands of years, material objects have been the objects of human labor. All tools, from the stone ax to the first steam engine, electric motor or lathe, were associated with the processing of matter, the use and conversion of energy. At the same time, mankind had to solve problems of management, problems of accumulation, processing and transfer of information, experience, knowledge, there are groups of people whose profession is connected exclusively with information activities. In ancient times, these were, for example, military leaders, priests, chroniclers, then scientists, etc.

Collection of information. We have to admit that the sense organs - our main instrument for understanding the world - are not the most perfect adaptations. They are not always accurate and not all information can be perceived. It is no accident that they say about rough, approximate calculations: "by eye". If there were no special devices, it is unlikely that mankind would have managed to penetrate the secrets of a living cell or conquer the Cosmos. All human activities are associated with various actions with information, and various technical devices help him in this.

Any scientific knowledge begins when we can evaluate the information received, compare it, and therefore measure it. Therefore, to obtain information inaccessible to ordinary senses, special technical devices are widely used.

One of the oldest structures used to obtain astronomical information is located in England near the city of Salisbury. This is Stonehenge - "hanging stones". It was built around the 2nd century BC. e. Stonehenge consists of upright stone pillars arranged in concentric rings. On the vertical stones lie horizontal beams, a kind of arch. In 1963, using the latest research methods, it was established that stone arches give directions to the extreme positions of the Sun and Moon, and 56 white holes help predict the time of Solar and Lunar eclipses.

One of the oldest devices is the balance. With their help, people receive information about the mass of an object. Another old friend of ours - a thermometer - is used to measure the temperature of its environment.

Data processing. Gaining life experience, observing the world around him, in other words - accumulating more and more information, a person learns to draw conclusions. In ancient times, people said that a person learns with the help of the senses and comprehends what is known by the mind.

Once we touch a hot kettle or iron, we remember this for life. Every time, accidentally touching a hot surface, we withdraw our hand, because we all had our own "hot kettle" in childhood. If we analyze why this is happening, then we can draw a conclusion about the transformation (processing) of information. By touching a hot surface, we received information with the help of the organs of touch. The nervous system transmitted it to the brain, where, based on experience, it was concluded that there was a danger. The signal from the brain was sent to the muscles of the arms, which instantly contracted. Similar information processing processes occur at the moment when, at the very first chords of a familiar melody, the mood immediately improves or tears appear.

All these are examples of unconscious information processing, which is carried out, as it were, "apart from us," unconsciously. There are many examples of deliberate information processing. In this case, a person creates new information based on incoming information - the so-called input information - and on the stock of knowledge and experience he has.

For example, in chemistry lessons, we study the rules and laws (acquires certain knowledge and skills). When the teacher offers the next problem (input information), the student thinks over the sequence of the solution, remembering which of the learned rules he needs to apply. Finally, he finds the answer. This new information created by the student as a result of processing input information is called output. Thus, the output information is always the result of a person's mental activity in processing input information. We can say that a person is constantly processing input information, transforming it into output.

Input information - information that a person or device receives.

Imprint - information that is obtained after processing by a person or device.

Transfer of information... Human development would not have been possible without the exchange of information. For a long time, people from generation to generation passed on their knowledge, notified of danger or transmitted important and urgent information, exchanged information. For example, in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 19th century, the fire service was highly developed. In several parts of the city, high towers were built, from which the surroundings were observed. If there was a fire, a multi-colored flag (with one or another geometric figure) was raised on the tower during the day, and several lanterns were lit at night, the number and location of which indicated the part of the city where the fire occurred, as well as the degree of its complexity. In any process of transmission or exchange of information, there is its source and recipient, and the information itself is transmitted through the communication channel using signals: mechanical, thermal, electrical, etc. In ordinary life, for a person, any sound, light, are signals that carry a semantic load. For example, a siren is an audible alarm; phone ringing - beep to pick up the phone; red traffic light - a signal prohibiting crossing the road.

A living being or a technical device can act as a source of information. From it, the information goes to the encoder, which is designed to transform the original message into a form convenient for transmission. You meet with such devices all the time: a telephone microphone, a sheet of paper, etc. Through the communication channel, information goes to the recipient's decoding device, which converts the encoded message into a form understandable to the recipient. Some of the most sophisticated decoding devices are the human ear and eye.

In the process of transmission, information can be lost, distorted. This is due to various interference, both on the communication channel and during encoding and decoding of information. You encounter such situations quite often: distorted sound in the phone, interference with television transmission, telegraph errors, incomplete information transmitted, incorrectly expressed thought, error in calculations. Issues related to methods of encoding and decoding information are dealt with by a special science - cryptography.

When transmitting information, the form of information presentation plays an important role. It can be understood by the source of information, but not available to the recipient. People specifically agree on the language with which information will be presented for its more reliable preservation.

Data storage... The human mind is the most perfect tool for understanding the world around us. And human memory is an excellent device for storing received information. For information to become the property of many people, it is necessary to be able to store it not only in the memory of a person. In the process of human development, there were different ways of storing information, which improved over time: knots on ropes, notches on sticks, birch bark letters, letters on papyrus, paper. Finally, the printing press was invented and books appeared. The search for reliable and affordable ways of storing information continues to this day. Today we use a variety of materials for storing information: paper, photographic and film strips, magnetic audio and video tapes, magnetic and optical disks. All these are information carriers.

Information carrier - a material object intended for storing and transmitting information. The material nature of information carriers can be different: DNA molecules that store genetic information; paper on which texts and images are stored; a magnetic tape that stores audio information; photographic and film strips on which graphic information is stored; memory chips, magnetic and laser disks, which store programs and data in a computer, and so on.

Search for information. Just storing information is not enough. You need to be able to use it. And in order to use the right information at the right time, you need to be able to find it quickly. Information retrieval is retrieving stored information. There are manual and automated methods for finding information in repositories.

Information retrieval methods:

• direct observation

• communication with experts on the issue of interest to you

• reading relevant literature

• watching TV and video programs

• listening to radio broadcasts and audio tapes

• work in libraries, archives

• request to information systems, databases and computer data banks

• other methods.

In order to collect the most complete information and increase the likelihood of making the right decision, it is necessary to use a variety of information retrieval methods. In the process of searching for information, you will come across both the most useful and useless, both reliable and false, objective and subjective information, but in order not to drown in the sea of ​​information, learn to select only useful information for solving the problem facing you. Don't make your head look like a dustbin where everyone dumps indiscriminately.

To speed up the process of obtaining the most complete information on the issue, catalogs (alphabetical, subject, etc.) began to be compiled.

Data protection. Information plays a very important role in human life. Decision making that affects the development of society depends on it. To prevent the loss of information, various mechanisms for its protection are being developed, which are used at all stages of working with it. Various protection methods are used to protect information:

• access control;

 • differentiation of access;

 • duplication of communication channels;

 • cryptographic transformation of information using ciphers.

By cipher is called the secret code for transforming information in order to protect it from illegal users. Cryptography is involved in the invention and use of ciphers. Scientists, diplomats and clergymen have been fond of cryptography since ancient times. History has many examples of the use of ciphers to protect information. For example, Caesar used a special cipher for correspondence, which went down in history under his name. This is a fairly simple cipher, in which each letter is replaced by the third letter after it in the alphabet. You can change the shift value and get a new cipher. It is important that the sender and the recipient of the message have the same letter substitution or permutation table. During the wars between Sparta and Athens, one interesting cipher was known that you can easily repeat. To do this, you need to take a pencil, wrap it with a paper strip and write a message on it. Expanding this strip, you get a set of unconnected letters that line up in a specific order only on a pencil of the desired diameter.

There is a "key" encryption method. The simplest example of such encryption, when the letter number of the cipher text in the alphabet is obtained by adding the letter number of the text in the alphabet and the number of the key letter in the alphabet. For example, let's encrypt the word “knowledge” with the key “world”. The number of the letter "z" is 9, and the number of the letter "m" is 14. The sum of 9 and 14 is 23. The 23rd letter of the alphabet is "x". Following the logic, we get the encrypted word "hchsyts".

So, human information activity includes:

Collection of information;

Data processing;

Transfer of information;

Data storage;

Search for information;

Data protection.

Questions

×          What is information activity?

×          What information processes exist? Describe them.

Exercises

1. Come up with a code and encrypt the phrase "I teach computer science."